My mom and I have tried to grow the curry leaf plant several times in PA.  I gave up first.  These plants grow well outside in the summer but when they come inside for the winter they invariably get infected with spider mites.  And they never seem to thrive enough that I can freely use their fragrant leaves for cooking.

After we bought the house in Puerto Rico, our friend Pam, an avid gardener in California offered to send me a small plant.  Pam has a lot of exotic plants in her garden and we thoroughly enjoyed our tour (and tasting) when we visited in July 2016.  She has now turned her garden into a plant nursery business.

Pam generously shipped me four small plants.  I took two of them to Puerto Ricco.  Two in case one does not survive. I planted them September 2019. 

Both these plants grew vigorously. In 15 months, they are both taller than me!  Whenever I plan to cook Indian food, I head to the garden and grab a few springs to add to the dishes.  Just nudging the trees, releases the wonderful curry leaf aroma. I learned Padma Lakshmi’s the trick of adding curry leaves twice, once in the beginning so its flavor can be cooked into the dish and again later, to retain some of the fresher notes.

By the way, in Puerto Rico, they use these plastic rings to prevent rats from gnawing at the stems of tender plants. I have found they are more useful to protect from enthusiastic men with weed whackers.

I need more ways to use these leaves – Curry Leaf Gin and Tonic and Curry Leaf Chutney are two recipes I want to try. I am able to bring wads of these sprigs back to PA with me where I store them safely in my freezer.

According to Pam, it took seven years for her plant to grow as large as mine.  My husband has given Pam (and others) facetime tours of our growing garden.  She is planning a trip with her family as soon as it is safe to do so to visit her offspring.